Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today asked state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) to step up crude output from its fields in Assam to help reduce India's import dependence.
Pradhan, on a four-day visit to the North-East, visited ONGC's Assam asset to take stock of the production performance, the company said in a statement here.
The minister visited "the Geleky Drill site EV 2000 5 and interacted with all the employees", it added.
Accompanied by ONGC Chairman Dinesh K Sarraf, he also visited the Geleky GGS-I (Group Gathering Station-I) where oil is collected from all the wells in the surrounding areas. The Geleky GGS-I was constructed in 1968 and is currently producing over 1,000 tonnes of crude per day.
"The minister also reviewed the overall performance of the ONGC Assam Asset to ascertain what should be done in order to increase the production of one of the oldest assets of ONGC," the statement read.
Pradhan exhorted ONGC "to think differently so that the decline in production is arrested and oil comes up from newer areas".
India imports 77 per cent of its oil requirements and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tasked the oil ministry to cut the import reliance by 10 per cent by 2022.
"Team ONGC assured the minister that no stone would be left unturned to achieve higher production from this asset," it added.
